Reading Challenge 2018

Now that 2018 is here, it's time to set the new reading challenge! I didn't manage to finish the 2017 Reading Challenge, but this year I'm determined to make it! I really enjoy this challenge, although it's a tough one, so for the 2018 reading challenge I'm going to keep more or less the same categories. 

So, in 2018 I will read:

1. a novel from Europe: Death in Venice, by Thomas Mann
2. a novel from Middle East: The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran
3. a novel from East Asia: Revenge, by Yoko Ogawa
4. a novel from North America: Artemis, by Andy Weir
5. a novel from South America
6. a novel from Oceania: The Arrival, by Shaun Tan
7. a novel from Africa
8. a novel that won the Man Booker Prize
9. a novel than won the Pulitzer Prize: Maus, by Art Spiegelman
10. a novel written by a Nobel Prize recipient: Nocturnes, by Kazuo Ishiguro
11. a play: The Firebugs: A Morality Without a Moral, by Max Frisch
12. a book of poetry: Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women, by Maya Angelou
13. a collection of short stories: Revenge, by Yoko Ogawa
14. a manga: Cat Street (8 Vol.), by Yoko Kamio
15. a superhero comic: Daredevil: Born Again, by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli
16. a non-superhero comic: My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies, by Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips
17. a classic: Heart of Darkness, and Selected Short Fiction, by Joseph Conrad
18. a non-fiction book: Romancing the Beat: Story Structure for Romance Novels, by Gwen Hayes
19. a memoir/biography: The Reason I Jump:The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism, by Naoki Higashida
20. a novel that won the Nebula Award

So, this is it! This is the third year that I'm doing this challenge, and I'm really happy that it will "force" me to read more diverse books. Feel free to join me!

2017: A Reading Overview

HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone!!! May 2018 bring you all the joy and love, and of course many interesting books to read!

But, before going into the new reading challenges, let's just take a look at my reading list in 2017.

So in 2017 I read a total of 90 books. Although they seem a lot, I didn't manage to meet my Goodreads goal of 100 books.

In detail, I read 16,331 pages over those 90 books. The longest book (American Gods, by Neil Gaiman) had 640 pages, and the shortest one (An Arabian Night: Nazin's Dream, by Garon Whited) was just 17 pages long. The most popular book I read this year (on Goodreads) was Animal Farm, by George Orwell, while the highest rated one (on Goodreads) was Dengeki Daisy, Vol. 3, by Kyousuke Motomi, with a rating of 4.48. 

My personal average rating on Goodreads was 3.9. My love for Manga has really shown this year, as it was the most popular type of book that I read, with 45 volumes!

The books that I didn't finish in 2017 were:

• Daniel Deronda, by George Eliot (I seriously doubt that I will ever finish it)
• Purity, by Jonathan Franzen (I guess I might get into it when I'm in the mood)
• Artemis, by Andy Weir (Ok, this is unfair, because I will finish it in the next few days. I just didn't manage to finish before the end of the year)

The series I didn't finish in 2017:

• Black Bird, by Kanoko Sakurakouji (I'm currently in volume 10, but I have to admit beforehand that I don't really like this manga series)

How did I do in The 2017 Reading Armchair's Challenge? For one more year I failed. This is a tough challenge, I won't lie. But it's diverse, and it made me read some books that I would otherwise hesitate to read. Still, 14 out of the 20 books of the challenge was a good score! I'll continue in 2018 with the same challenge.

Top 10 Books that I Read in 2017:

1. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
2. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
3. Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
4. Revival, by Stephen King
5. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
6. Hirunaka no Ryuusei (Daytime Shooting Star), by Mika Yamamori (10 Volumes)
7. The Gunslinger, Stephen King
8. Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman
9. The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
10. Pnin, Vladimir Nabokov